The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of apple tree, botanically known as Malus domestica of the Rosaceae family, and hereinafter referred to by the variety denomination ‘FUCIV51 ’.
The new Malus ‘FUCIV51’ was discovered by the inventors, Michelangelo Leis and Alessio Martinelli, in the summer 2005 as a naturally occurring mutation branch in a block of Fuji apple trees designated as ‘NAGAFU-12’(unpatented), growing in a cultivated area of an orchard in Ferrara, Italy. The tree of the new variety was showing fruits distinctly different in appearance, more intense and diffused red skin surface color, from the fruit of the adjacent Fuji ‘NAGAFU-12’ trees.
Asexual reproduction of the new Malus ‘FUCIV51’ trees started by grafting onto M9 rootstock in February 2009 in a new testing field in S. Giuseppe di Comacchio (Ferrara), Italy. Some trees of Fuji ‘NAGAFU-12’ (unpatented), and Fuji ‘Aztec’ were grafted on M9 rootstocks in the same row and at the same time as ‘FUCIV51’ was first grafted on M9 rootstocks. First fruiting of the ‘FUCIV51’ trees occurred in 2007, and revealed that fruit produced from the ‘FUCIV51’ trees possessed characteristics which clearly distinguished ‘FUCIV51’ from other Fuji apple varieties known to the Inventors. Asexual reproduction of ‘FUCIV51’ has demonstrated that the combination of characteristics as herein disclosed for the new variety are firmly fixed and retained through successive generations of asexual reproduction. The new variety reproduces true to type.